Government Contracts Commons^™

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Abolishing Private Prisons: A Constitutional And Moral Imperative, André Douglas Pond Cummings, Robert Craig

Law Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Beat The Heat: Texas’S Need To Reduce Summer Temperatures In Offender Housing, Mary E. Adair

St. Mary's Law Journal

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s lack of air conditioning in offender housing areas is a violation of the Eighth Amendment and deprives offenders of humane living conditions. Unlike most Texans, offenders housed in the TDCJ are unable to adequately protect themselves from the higher, prolonged summer temperatures. Most Texas prisons do not provide air conditioning or other types of cooling systems in offender housing areas, so offenders are at the mercy of the elements with little protection against heat-related illnesses. Several jurisdictions, other than Texas, have recognized extreme temperatures in housing areas can lead to constitutional violations because the …

China's Belt And Road Initiative: An Examination Of Project Financing Issues And Alternatives, August Nelson Dinwiddie

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

In 2013, China launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to realize the vision of revitalizing the ancient Silk Road. The BRI can be characterized as a vast infrastructure development initiative spanning over sixty-five countries that total almost half of the world's GDP. Since its launch, BRI projects have primarily been financed through commercial loans provided by Chinese banks, creating concerns over debt sustainability. At the top of these concerns are fears over whether participation in the BRI will lead to a "debt-trap scenaro." Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) provide an alternative financing option. In project development under a PPP, particularly the …

The Folly Of Credit As Pandemic Relief, Pamela Foohey, Dalié Jiménez, Christopher K. Odinet

Faculty Scholarship

Within weeks of the coronavirus pandemic appearing in the United States, the American economy came to a grinding halt. The unprecedented modern health crisis and the collapsing economy forced Congress to make a critical choice about how to help American families survive financially. Congress had two basic options. It could enact policies that provided direct and meaningful financial support to people, without the necessity of later repayment. Or it could pursue policies that temporarily relieved people from their financial obligations, but required that they eventually pay amounts subject to payment moratoria later.

In passing the CARES Act, Congress primarily chose …

The Army’S G-Rap Fiasco: How The Lives And Careers Of Hundreds Of Innocent Soldiers Were Destroyed, Jeffrey F. Addicott

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.

Qap Out: Why The Federal Government Should Require More From How States Allocate Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Connor Blancato

Journal of Law and Policy

Prohibitively high land acquisition and construction costs block affordable housing developers from using the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program in high opportunity areas. Policymakers must study the history of housing policy in the United States and realize that the LIHTC program works because it suitably balances previously problematic private-market competition, federalism concerns, and compliance issues. Federal lawmakers can look to Qualified Allocation Plans drafted by individual states as a way to encourage the construction of affordable housing without upsetting this equilibrium. To encourage such development, the federal government can require states, in determining tax credit allocations through QAPs, to give …

Fmc Corp. V. Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Seth T. Bonilla

Public Land & Resources Law Review

In 1998, FMC Corporation agreed to submit to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ permitting processes, including the payment of fees, for clean-up work required as part of consent decree negotiations with the Environmental Protection Agency. Then, in 2002, FMC refused to pay the Tribes under a permitting agreement entered into by both parties, even though the company continued to store hazardous waste on land within the Shoshone-Bannock Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho. FMC challenged the Tribes’ authority to enforce the $1.5 million permitting fees first in tribal court and later challenged the Tribes’ authority to exercise civil regulatory and adjudicatory jurisdiction over …

The Auditor's Responsibilities For Fraud Detection And Disclosure: Do The Auditing Standards Provide A Safe Harbor?, James L. Costello

Maine Law Review

Eighty-seven percent of managers recently surveyed were willing to commit financial statement fraud. More than half were willing to overstate assets, forty-eight percent were willing to understate loss reserves and thirty-eight percent would "pad" a government contract. These disturbing results are underscored by the financial miseries still brewing in the savings and loan industry, as well as by other corporate and banking financial debacles of the past decade, including Lincoln Savings & Loan, Wedtech, and the Delorean sports car venture scandal. Amidst these financial ruins we find the chronic element of management fraud. Unfortunately for investors and depositors a troublesome …

Australian National Audit Office: Evaluating Australian Army Program Performance, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) evaluates the management and financial performance of Australian government programs for the Australian Parliament, Australian government agencies, Australian taxpayers, and individuals interested in the performance of these programs globally. This article examines how ANAO has examined the performance of Australian Army programs and strengths and weaknesses found in these programs while recommending changes to improve program performance. It also examines how government agencies and corporations which have been the subject of ANAO analyses have reacted to ANAO findings. This assessment also examines how Plan B (the possibility that Australia might have to rely less …

Analysis Of Military Construction Cost Growth In Usaf Major Defense Acquisition Programs, Emily E. Angell, Edward D. White, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Alfred E. Thal Jr.

Faculty Publications

This study uses descriptive and inferential statistics to identify cost growth Analysis of Military Construction of military construction (MILCON) at the programmatic level, while bridging the gap between Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) estimates and actual project costs. Findings of this study aid the cost community with appropriate allocation of resources in developing these estimates. Overall, Major Defense Acquisition Programs (MDAP) appear to experience more negative growth (cost savings) in MILCON estimates on reviewed SARs— typically less than 0.2% of the total program cost. SAR estimates became more accurate from the first to last SAR in comparison to the total MILCON …

A Comparison Of Sbir Investment Methods: Afwerx Vs Legacy, Evan A. Gist

Theses and Dissertations

The AFWERX Open Topic (AOT) program uses funding from the United States Air Force’s (USAF) Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) budget to adapt commercial technology to USAF needs. The AOT approach to small business investment is markedly different from that of legacy SBIR investment methods. This research is a comparison of processes and outcomes for AOT and legacy SBIR. The first axis of comparison is on commercialization rates. Applying a legacy definition of commercialization on a sample of AOT contracts, we found AOT’s commercialization to be 37% (compared to an 8.8% for legacy SBIR). We caveat this finding by …

Mechanisms For Consultation And Free, Prior And Informed Consent In The Negotiation Of Investment Contracts, Sam Szoke-Burke, Kaitlin Cordes

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Investor-state contracts are regularly used in low- and middle-income countries to grant concessions for land-based and natural resource investments, such as agricultural, extractive industry, forestry, or renewable energy projects. These contracts are rarely negotiated in the presence of, or with meaningful input from, the people who risk being adversely affected by the project. This practice will usually risk violating requirements for meaningful consultation, and, where applicable, free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), and is particularly concerning when the investor-state contract gives the investor company rights to lands or resources over which local communities have legitimate claims.

This article explores how …

In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond, Janet Ainsworth

Seattle University Law Review

Janet Ainsworth, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law: In Memory of Professor James E. Bond.

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

United States Department Of Defense Acquisition Of Leading-Edge Information Technology Services And The Impact Of Public Market Research On Efficiency And Effectiveness, Thomas Denning

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This dissertation examines the acquisition of leading-edge IT services (LEITS), like those associated with cyber, agile software development, and cloud migration. In an effort to build on previous research, the purpose of this dissertation is twofold: to examine how Public Market Research impacts the LEITS acquisition process in the DoD and to discover strengths and value-added components that exist in the current government acquisition process leading to greater efficiency and effectiveness. Through a mixed methods approach, this dissertation provides recommendations for how to conduct the most efficient and effective LEITS acquisitions, striving to maximize a constrained budget, minimize time to …

The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary: An Exploration Of Changing The Discourse On Conservation, Arielle Ben-Hur

Pitzer Senior Theses

In 2015, the Northern Chumash Tribal Council submitted a National Marine Sanctuary Nomination to establish the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary– a means by which to ensure the protection of one of the most culturally and biologically diverse coastlines in the world. On October 5, 2015, John Armor of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) responded to the nomination, adding it to the inventory of areas NOAA may consider in the future for national marine sanctuary designation.

In my thesis, I explore how the nomination of the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary acts as a platform from which Traditional …

More “Substantial Harm” Than Good: Recrafting Foia’S Exemption 4 After Food Marketing Institute V. Argus Leader Media, Jane E. Kirtley, Scott Memmel, Jonathan Anderson

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Belt-And-Suspenders Canon, Ethan J. Leib, James J. Brudney

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay christens a new canon into the doctrines of statutory interpretation, one that can counter the too-powerful canon that has courts imposing norms against redundancy in their readings of statutes. Judges engaging in statutory interpretation must do a better job of recognizing how and why legislatures choose not to draft with perfect parsimony. Our Essay highlights the multifarious ways legislatures in federal and state governments self-consciously and thoughtfully – rather than regrettably and lazily – think about employing “belt-and-suspenders” efforts in their drafting practices. We then analyze in depth courts’ disparate efforts to integrate a belt-and-suspenders canon into their …

The Compliance Mentorship Program: Improving Ethics And Compliance In Small Government Contractors, Jessica Tillipman, Vijaya Surampudi

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Over the past decade, the anti-corruption, ethics, and compliance landscape has changed dramatically. This is a direct consequence of a global anti-corruption enforcement effort led by the United States through its enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The increase in enforcement has also been spurred by the adoption of several multilateral anti-corruption agreements, such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Anti-Bribery Convention and the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). These agreements have spurred several countries to enact anti-corruption laws, such as the U.K. Bribery Act, Brazil’s Clean Company Act, and France’s Loi Sapin II. The …

The Hard Look Doctrine: How Disparate Impact Theory Can Inform Agencies On Proper Implementation Of Nepa Regulations, Monica Mercola

Journal of Law and Policy

Executive Order 12898—Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations—was issued to achieve “environmental protection for all communities” by drawing federal agencies’ attention to the environmental and human health effects brought about by their actions. The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) sets forth a detailed process which aims to ensure that each agency will have available, and will consider, a carefully detailed compilation of information concerning significant environmental impacts resulting from federal actions before taking those actions. Realizing the Executive Order’s goal, however, is rendered problematic, in part because of the difficulty in challenging an Environmental …

Should Affirmative Action Public Contracts Constitute Government Benefits? Calculating Procurement Fraud Loss Under Section 2b1.1(B)(1), Adam Kwon

Notre Dame Law Review Reflection

Congress has established a program (the section 8(a) program) that, despite having taken various forms over the years, has worked to benefit disadvantaged business entities and, by extension, the socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals who run them by setting aside and awarding to those entities opportunities to perform on certain designated public contracts. Occasionally, people either lie ex ante or fail to fulfill obligations ex post in order to fraudulently procure these section 8(a) contracts (i.e., they commit procurement fraud).

This fairly esoteric area of the law is disoriented by a circuit split over how to sentence such white-collar defendants (if convicted) …

Reflections On Thinking About The Pofma, Wei Yao, Kenny Chng

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Singapore Protection From Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) has generated a considerable amount of interest in the public square. Taking into account the way that public discourse has unfolded thus far, this post will offer a couple of brief reflections as to how one ought to think about the POFMA – indeed, borrowing a key concept from administrative law, this post is primarily concerned with the process of thinking about the POFMA, rather than offering a substantive position on its merits.

Private Prisons, Private Governance: Essay On Developments In Private-Sector Resistance To Privatized Immigration Detention, Danielle C. Jefferis

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

No abstract provided.

Uncertainty In Employee Status Across Federal Law, Ryan Vacca

Faculty Publications

Numerous federal statutes rely on a distinction between employees and independent contractors. Based on a series of Supreme Court decisions from 1968 through 2003, courts and administrative agencies have used a common law multifactor test to draw this distinction. In an effort to enhance predictability and certainty within and across legislation, these cases have rejected a purposive approach in applying the test. But the Supreme Court has never said which, if any, of the factors are the most important in the analysis, nor has anyone determined whether the underlying purpose-enhancing predictability and certainty-has been attained.

This empirical study uses content …

The Post-Truth First Amendment, Sarah Haan

Indiana Law Journal

Post-truthism is widely viewed as a political problem. This Article explores posttruthism as a constitutional law problem, and argues that, because post-truthism offers a normative framework for regulating information, we should take it seriously as a basis for law.

In its exploration of the influence of post-truth ideas on law, the Article focuses on the compelled speech doctrine. When the State mandates disclosure, it pits the interests of unwilling speakers against the interests of listeners. In the twenty-first century, speakers who are targeted by mandatory disclosure laws are often organizational actors with informational advantages, such as corporations. Listeners who stand …

Bitcoin: Order Without Law In The Digital Age, John O. Mcginnis, Kyle Roche

Indiana Law Journal

Modern law makes currency a creature of the state and ultimately the value of its currency depends on the public’s trust in that state. While some nations are more capable than others at instilling public trust in the stability of their monetary institutions, it is nonetheless impossible for any legal system to make the pre-commitments necessary to completely isolate the governance of its money supply from political pressure. This proposition is true not only today, where nearly all government institutions manage their money supply in the form of central banking, but also true of past private banking regimes circulating their …

Contracting For Healthcare: Price Terms In Hospital Admission Agreements, George A. Nation Iii

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

This article discusses the application of contract law principles to the relationship between hospitals and patients to determine how much patients owe for the health care they receive. For patients who are covered by in-network health insurance the exact nature of the contract created with the hospital usually is not relevant to the patient’s financial obligation because the patient’s contract with the hospital is superseded by the contract between the patient’s health insurer and the hospital. Nevertheless, even in-network patients are financially impacted, via increased insurance premiums, by the contract analysis discussed here, and for the increasing number of patients …

Air Force Space Programs: Comparing Estimates To Final Development Budgets, Christopher Elworth, Edward D. White, Jonathan D. Ritschel, Gregory E. Brown

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes how development budget estimates, as reported in the Selected Acquisition Reports, change over time for primarily Air Force space programs. Government acquisition policy emphasizes the importance of developing an accurate point estimate for programs to ensure program budget efficiency; however, statistics imply space programs tend to underspend at the beginning of the program and to overspend at the end of Initial Operational Capability. This suggests new phasing methods that reflect the unique needs of space and perhaps other developmental-type programs by allocating more of the budget in later years rather than at the beginning of the program, …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

No abstract provided.